Darleene Barrientos
As they dipped spoons into sandwich bags full of homemade ice cream
as they walked through Dunsmore Elementary School's crowded
cafeteria, 6-year-olds Megan Ellison and Brigitta Call looked for
their next experiment.
"It was not hard," Megan said, referring to how the girls made the
ice cream. "All I had to do was shake it and make it cold."
Brigitta didn't like the experience as much.
"It was hard because you had to get salt, and you had to use your
fingers to get the ice," she said.
The two girls were part of Dunsmore's Family Science Night
Thursday, an evening of interactive science experiments for students
and their families. Exhibits featured names like "Fun Feeling Furry
Friends," where children could feel the textures of muskrat, beaver,
raccoon, sheep and skunk skins. The curious could also experience
sweet, sour, bitter and salty tastes in the "Scentsational Senses"
exhibit by munching on pickles, radicchio, spicy cheese cubes,
pretzels and butterscotch chips. The "Fantastic Physics of Fitness,"
exhibit had students try to balance on a beam, jump on a trampoline
and tumble down an inclined mat.
"We wanted the kids to have as much as a hands-on experience as
possible," science night organizer Wendy Hart said. "We've got
physical science, life science, environmental science, astronomy,
chemistry."
The chemistry experiments provided the evening's dessert -- ice
cream in bags and root beer made out of dry ice and root beer
extract.
Outside, Glendale's Park Rangers displayed animal skins and skulls
in front of a nature scene display as parents helped students gaze at
the half-hidden moon through large, high-powered telescopes.
"Ooh, pretty," Tara Coffeen, 6, said as she looked through the
eyepiece and saw the moon in detail, craters and all. "It looks like
a big circle. It looks better through there."
The school's PTA-organized science night, the organization's first
big event and meeting in the cafeteria since a vandal set fire to it
in August.
Signs of the vandalism were long gone Thursday. The charred walls
and floors were clean and the ceiling repainted for the science
night.
The destroyed curtains were replaced with new, forest green
velvety curtains, thrown aside to allow kids to tumble at the fitness
exhibit.
"We haven't been in here since the fire," PTA President Dee Reik
said. "We've always had our meetings in here. Since the fire, we have
had to be very creative, doing our meetings outside on the benches."
